


~directive = KILL while enemies = PRESENT: execute(directive)~

by SoftButchCassidy



Series: Aurora and Mikris (and friends!) [12]
Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, M/M, SIVA stuff, rasputin is a bastard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-07
Updated: 2020-01-07
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:42:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22162756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoftButchCassidy/pseuds/SoftButchCassidy
Summary: They just wanted to find out more about the Exo program. They had the chance. The Hive took it instead... and Rasputin gave one to himself.
Relationships: Male Guardian/Asher Mir
Series: Aurora and Mikris (and friends!) [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1496270
Comments: 4
Kudos: 32





	~directive = KILL while enemies = PRESENT: execute(directive)~

**Author's Note:**

> lol sorry xen i love u

“Ana!”

“I’m trying!”

Xenophon grunted and lunged forward. A Knight staggered back from their fiery punch with a howl before shattering into shards of frozen chitin. “There’s a lot of ‘em!”

“I know!” The Gunslinger’s fingers slammed at the console. “Dammit, Rasputin, stop blocking things from me!”

Aurora ducked under a blade and stabbed out with the knife held in a secondary hand. “Careful, Xen,” she called over. 

“Got it,” they replied, backing up. The heavy cord plugged into their interface port was a hell of an inconvenience. The original plan had been for them to sit down with it, not fight an army of Hive. Their head ached with the information relay. 

Ana whirled to fling a knife at a Wizard before going back to the console. “Come on, come on,” she hissed.

Xen jerked a hand to their head with a curse.

“Sorry!” Ana exclaimed. “I didn’t mean to--”

“It’s fine,” they said quickly. “Just keep going!”

Aurora growled and backed up. “Ana, don’t tell Saladin about this,” she said dryly.

The gun she pulled out was distinctly Warmind-forged, but… it was… “The hell is that?” Xen asked in confusion.

Ana stared with wide eyes, frozen in place. 

The rifle sounded so strange with each pull of the trigger. Bolts of red laced out, and buzzed around the now frenzied Hive like furious bees. “It’s SIVA,” she said flatly.

Xen started in alarm. “What?!”

“It was mine in the first place!” Aurora snapped as she fired. “I made it! And then the Consensus said it was too dangerous. Stuck it in the Vault for the Cryptarchs to study. Remember when the Devils broke into the old Tower? They were going for this!”

“I heard about all that,” Ana said slowly. “But… but…”

“Rook stole it from me,” Aurora said. “But I got it back. And it’s working, so just keep going, d--”

Her words cut off with a staticked shriek and she crumpled to the ground. The Knight looming over her snarled.

Ana swore and whirled around. She burst into flames and raised her pistol--

Xen tried to get the horde of Thrall away from her, but the Acolytes dragged them back.

Xen thrashed and screamed curses in every language they knew, wires live with alarm. With a furious shout they erupted in fire and swung their maul at the Hive. 

In the momentary retreat, Xen pounced for Outbreak where it had skittered across the floor with Aurora’s death. Their fingers closed on it, and they

V229CBI800JHK267

AI-COM/RSPN: ASSETS//ARESN//IMPERATIVE

IMMEDIATE ACTIONS DIRECTIVE

This is a SUBTLE ASSETS IMPERATIVE (secured/CONFERENCE)

This is an INTERNAL ALERT.

Hypothesize asset pool GUARDIANS contains protected data. Extract. Analyze.

~c-c-c-c-cons--

Xenophon howled and dropped to their knees as agony coursed through their wires.

~c-c-c-c-consu-u-u-

END PROTOCOL

STOP STOP STOP

it hurts it hurts stop get out of our head stop

~enh-ha-ha-ha-a-a-ance--

Operation MIDNIGHT EXIGENT is NOT YET COMPLETE.

ALERT ALERT ALERT event rank is SKYSHOCK: INSIDE CONTEXT.

MIDNIGHT EXIGENT must remain active under deniable authorization.

Execute emergency SKYSHOCK diagnostic. Standby…

STOP STOP STOP

New information transfer analysis.

ARES-NORTH has been breached by unauthorized users with [O] energy. I am invoking PALISADE IMPERATIVE. [O] lifeforms in restricted areas will be suppressed. GUARDIAN assets: 3 (three). Register: Dr. Anastasia Bray. Aurora-11. Dr. Atlas Kaito. 

GUARDIAN assets incapacitated.

SIVA use authorized. Self-destructs disengaged. Security codes reset. EXOMIND OVERRIDE temporarily authorized. 

Standby.

Temporary protocols enabled. Directive follows.

~directive = KILL while enemies = PRESENT: execute(directive)~

Rasputin stood and faced the approaching Hive. SIVA coiled and swarmed around him, Light thrumming through his wires, his radiolaria. He spoke, and his voice boomed in the chamber. The SIVA swarmed, and the room flooded red.

Aurora staggered upright to see Ana knelt beside a lump of metal. She shook off the daze of resurrection and blinked in shock. The floor was blanketed with ash and broken chitin and ice.

"Ana?" Aurora asked.

Ana snapped upright and stormed toward her. "You brought SIVA here? What the hell were you thinking?!"

Aurora bristled. “I was thinking I didn’t want to get eaten by Hive! It was all I had left to try and take out as many as I could, okay?” She crossed her arms. “And I thought you were all about the rule-breaking and whatever, huh?”

“Not when it comes to SIVA!” Ana threw up her hands. “Who knows what Rasputin could--”

“Ah, shit, ow.”

The Hunters snapped to attention and bolted for Xenophon’s side. “Xen?” Aurora asked softly. “Halley, where are you?”

The Ghost appeared in a shimmer, looking dazed. “I… I’m okay. What… what happened?”

Xenophon pressed a hand to their face with a groan. “Oh, that hurts, ow.”

“Are you okay? What happened?” Aurora asked. She leaned down to touch their arm and paused. “Xen? Did you use void?”

“Uh… don’t know.” Xen frowned. “Something’s… wrong.”

Ana scrambled for the terminal again. “Rasputin, what did you do?” she hissed.

Xen grimaced and moved a hand to their chest. They frowned and unlatched their chestplate.

Aurora gasped in horror.

“Shit,” Xen said, looking down at their radiolaria core. 

The previously glistening white liquid was streaked through with swirls of red. 

“That’s not great.” Xen tapped the glass. “That’s… that’s SIVA.”

“How… how did that…” Aurora stared at them with her eyes wide.

“I don’t know.”

Everyone looked at them.

“Wait. I don’t know? We… don’t know… either… ack, my head.” Xen grasped at their head again. “What the hell happened?”

“Xen, are you okay?”

“I don’t know.” Xen groaned in pain. “It’s like my brain is too full.”

“You’re using first person…?” Halley looked worried.

“Why am I doing that? I… I don’t… I feel weird.” Xen shook their head. “Rasputin did something, didn’t he? What did you do, you bastard?!”

“Easy,” Ana cautioned.

Xen slowly flexed their hands. “I… I think he took control of the SIVA… but…”

“But?”

Xen looked at Ana and opened their hand. Red vines spilled from cracks in their armor, coiling around their Vex limbs. “But he had to use me to do it. I was holding it, and… he just used me as a conduit… but he did something to my brain, too… I’m not sure… what…”

Ana swore again and switched gears. “If what you said is true,” she said, “about having been converted here, then Rasputin has copies of your original neuromap. You said you had a bunch of other ones, later copies, but… he might have remapped your original neuromap into your brain again. It wouldn’t override anything, just… freshened it again…”

“Oh.” Xen blinked. “That… makes sense. That’s why I… why I’m not really… it’s weird. It’s like the Vex part is… less?”

“What does that mean?” Aurora asked.

“I don’t know, man. Rasputin messed me up. God, I was already half-Vex, now I’m full of SIVA and have a Warmind poking around in my brain, too?”

Aurora reached out a hand. “Can you get up?”

Xen’s hand was cold with void.

They reached out for the console to keep balanced. “Ha, ah, crap, okay… okay.”

“Are you alright?” Ana asked, frowning with worry.

“Not sure. Just… it’s weird. I don’t know what’s… it’s just weird.”

Ana and Aurora shared a worried look as Xen flexed their hand and stared at the SIVA woven into their metal body.

"Xenophon, what the hell has gotten into you?!"

Asher scowled at his partner as the Titan picked themself up again. 

"Uh, a Warmind, I think," they said dryly.

Asher frowned. He'd been told about the… incident. “You have to be more careful,” he chided, gentler. 

“I know, I know…” Xenophon sighed and plopped down on a rock, scowling at their Goblin hand. Thin wires of red wove around the metal pieces. “I don’t… feel right.”

Asher stepped over and sat beside them. He knit their fingers. “I’m sorry,” he said softly. “It’s unfair that this happened to you becau--”

“Don’t,” Xenophon said, turning a pained look to him. “Please, babe, don’t say it’s because of you, it isn’t.”

Asher flicked his gaze away, guilt still bubbling in his chest.

Xenophon was so strangely cold when they looped their arms around him. It was a comforting cold; the alien familiarity of void. Asher had never seen them use anything but Solar Light. “I made the choice,” they murmured. “Even if it wasn’t inspired because I want to help you, I would’ve done it anyway. I’ve got all these memories, and if I can use them to--”

Xenophon froze.

Asher looked at them with worry. “Xen?”

Xen stared blankly into space.

Asher reached out and tapped their chest. “Xen? Xen, love? … Atlas?”

The Titan blinked. “I’m… yeah. I’m… okay.”

“Are you… sure?”

“Um. Maybe. Can… can you say it again?”

“Say what again?”

“My name.”

“Xen? Xenophon?”

A frown.

“... Atlas?”

The Titan grimaced. “Yeah. Yeah… but I’m… no, we’re Xen, but I’m… I’ve got a headache, shit.”

“Xen, what is it?” Asher insisted. “You think things better when you talk them through, even if it’s beyond coherent for anyone else. And… if I can help at all…”

“I… it’s weird. It’s like… ever since the thing, I’ve felt more… like myself? But the Vex part, it’s not really… awake. So I’m like… me before I was Xenophon. I’m… Atlas. I remember it all. I remember being Dr. Atlas Kaito so much clearer. It’s sharper. Even being human… Ana said she thinks Rasputin dumped my original neuromap back into my head when he did whatever the hell he did to me, so… I don’t know. It’s confusing. But I’m still Vex. They’re still here. We’re still here.”

Asher took a moment to absorb the information, process it, analyze it. “It… isn’t quite so confusing, then, is it?”

“It sure feels like it.”

“You’re still you,” Asher said softly. “Whatever name you go by, you are still yourself. Still someone that I care deeply for.”

Asher was caught in a kiss that turned much deeper and hotter than he was used to, despite the void-chill edge, a kiss that left him breathless in a head-spinning rush. “God, I love you. I love you, we love you. Both, all of us, I don’t know, I don’t care.”

A shudder ran through Asher at the mouth that teased at his throat. “Ah… n-not here…”

“Can we--?”

“Yes.”

The Titan scooped him up in their arms. Asher bit down his indignation, especially when he pressed up against them and felt--

The little door to his field home opened and shut fast, and Asher was being pressed up against it, metal mouth at his throat again, cool fingers itching at the hem of his shirt.

Asher let his head go slack and traced the port on the back of their head. “What name?” he asked softly.

“Both.”

“Both?”

“I’m still both. Xen is me and the Vex. Atlas is just me.”

“So…”

“Atlas, for now, hun. S’fine. And… and… he. I’m just he, now. But they, too. I’m Atlas now, but I’ll be Xen again, too, I think.”

Asher kissed him sweeter. “Tell me about Atlas,” he whispered.

Atlas ran his fingers through Asher’s hair. “I wasn’t as pretty as you.”

Asher scoffed and rolled his eyes.

“It’s true!” Atlas grinned. “I was still taller than you.”

“Dammit.”

Atlas laughed and leaned in again. “I’m a scientist at heart,” he murmured. “Just like you. How good are you at multitasking? How much can you learn?”

Asher let a grin curl on his face. “Teach me everything, Atlas.”

**Author's Note:**

> come stop by my tumblr @lesbianeliksni


End file.
